Birthdays
by ali-chan
Summary: It's Alex's birthday and no one knows, time for some navel gazing from our favorite DI


Title: Birthdays

Rating: PG, mild language though no worse than the Harry Potter films lol ^_^;

Summary: create-a-thon assignment from last summer. Only just remembered to upload it!

Disclaimer: I wish to goodness that I owned A2A but, alas, I do not.

Author's Notes: before anyone asks, I'm working on the assumption that Alex is a Scorpio. Don't know why but she just seems like a Scorpio to me. I also have reason to believe that Luigi's is actually directly opposite the police station, which would explain why the entire CID congregates there every night. A slightly revised version as I noticed some historical inaccuracies in my story, so I changed the month of Alex's Birthday.

EDIT 11/05/09: there is now an official name for Molly's dad so I have edited the fic accordingly ^_^

Alex sighed as she looked at the mountain of paperwork on her desk, why was there always so much?

"Sod it," she said to the empty CID office as she got up, pulled on her coat and left for the evening, the mountain of paperwork left to loom another day. Even Alex, workaholic that she is, hated working on her birthday. Not that anyone knew it was her birthday of course, none of her colleagues had wished her a happy birthday, and there were no cards, cake or candles either. Nothing. She wasn't going to let it get her down though, she told herself, because she still needed to get back for Molly's birthday before she could even begin to think about her own.

She stepped out of the police station onto the damp pavement; the early November air had a chill to it signalling the transition from autumn to winter. Alex pulled her white leather jacket tighter around her body to keep the cold out as she walked the short distance from the station to Luigi's across the road. When she got there she decided to go through the restaurant to get to her flat in the hopes of maybe stopping for a bottle of wine (or four) with Gene, but upon entering she found the restaurant to be much quieter than usual. Not one of her fellow detectives was anywhere to be found. She sighed dejectedly for the second time that evening and resigned herself to the sad and lonely prospect of spending her 36th birthday sitting in front of her tiny 1980's television set watching Brideshead Revisited. "You'd think at least one of them would have known," she muttered irritatedly to herself as she made her way towards the stairs to the flat.

I've never really liked birthdays that much anyway, she reasoned with herself and for the most part this was true. It was mostly due to the fact that her parents died little more than two weeks before her ninth birthday. The worst thing about that ninth birthday was that Evan had tried to pretend like nothing had happened, tried to make it feel as normal as possible which given the circumstances made things even harder. Especially when it came to the presents, Evan had found the gifts that her mother and father had bought her and already wrapped up. He'd even left the gift tags on, he'd obviously thought it would be a comfort to her to have some loving messages from her parents on her birthday but it backfired horrifically. Upon seeing the gift tags she had become inconsolable, it was all Evan could do to get her to calm down enough to be able to have some friends over to play for the rest of the day. Alex laughed bitterly at the memory, poor Evan, he was so hopeless at the start!

That terrible ninth birthday was the reason why Alex always made sure that Molly always had a wonderful birthday. When she and her ex-husband were still together they would have big parties for her, even when Molly was too young to know what was going on, and as the relationship broke down the parties they threw got even more outlandish as a compensation for the problems in their marriage. Molly's happiness was about the only thing Alex and Pete could agree on in the end. After the divorce Alex made a promise to her self that Molly would never find herself alone on her birthday. This had been a constant fear for Alex as her job was so dangerous, negotiating hostage situations, and dealing with the criminally unhinged every day meant that her life was permanently at risk. And now that risk had become reality.

Alex saw that the front door to her flat was slightly ajar when she reached the top of the stairs. Drawing her gun she crept slowly forwards, she shivered slightly from the combination of fear and adrenalin running through her system in anticipation. She positioned herself beside the door, hugging the wall with her back, and nudged it open with the barrel of her gun. As she peered around the corner into the darkness of her apartment she could hear some shuffling and whispers followed by a brisk "Shhh!"

It's now or never Alex, she thought and, swallowing her fear, she burst into her flat.

The door slammed loudly behind her and the lights suddenly switched on causing her to close her eyes tightly to keep from being dazzled by the sudden brightness.

"SURPRISE!!!!"

The loud chorus of voices caused Alex to stumble over her own feet falling back onto something solid and warm.

"Watch where you're going will yer Bolls!" laughed the familiar voice of Gene hunt as he placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her around to face him. Alex opened her eyes and looked straight into his blue ones, she seemed frozen that way for a while until it dawned on her what was going on and she thumped him on the chest.

"You bloody idiot!" she yelled, "I could have shot you! Any of you!" She continued, turning around to face the rest of the CID who had gathered in her small apartment. There was a hand painted banner on the living room wall wishing her a 'Happy Birthday' and what seemed like half a brewery placed upon the worktop in the kitchen. Alex then suddenly burst into tears, the adrenalin and anger now gone she was left with just the overwhelming emotions that come with surprise parties; a mixture of mild terror, embarrassment and love. Ray brought over a large glass of Pinot Grigio and placed it in her hands:

"Happy birthday boss" Alex smiled tearfully and thanked him before downing the whole glass in one go.

The party was in full swing When Alex bumped into Shaz on her way to the bathroom,

"Thank you so much for organising this Shaz, it was very sweet of you!" Alex said hugging the younger woman tightly to show her appreciation.

"No problem ma'am!" Shaz replied brightly, "Only it wasn't my idea, it was the Guv's!" this revelation left Alex reeling. Sitting down on the edge of the bath she took a moment to collect her thoughts. Gene did this? Why? She resolved to seek him out and ask him but he was nowhere to be found inside the flat and no one knew where he was. I have to find him!

Noticing that the front door was once again ajar Alex went to investigate. Walking back down the stairs she saw that the door that lead to the alley beside the building was open. Outside she found Gene, smoking a cigarette alone under a streetlight. She watched a while unsure whether or not to approach him now she had finally found him. She could hear the sound of Rod Stewart singing 'Tonight I'm Yours' coming from the record player in her apartment through the open windows. Who does that record belong to? She thought wryly as she started to walk over to her DCI.

Gene watched her carefully, following the movement of her hips, as she walked over to him. He breathed out a large cloud of smoke before dropping his cigarette butt to the floor, snuffing it under his heel. She stood before him and studied his face carefully; she always had trouble reading him. Gene Hunt really was an enigma waiting to be unravelled. His posture stiffened in surprise when she suddenly decided to hug him tightly. After a moment or two her relaxed and put his arms around her and she relished the warmth. They stayed that way for the better part of ten minutes before he broke the silence.

"What's all this about then?" he said, lifting her head with a finger under her chin so that he may look into her eyes. Blue met Hazel and the searching gaze betrayed some hidden emotion behind his gruff exterior.

"Thank you Gene," she said, "Thank you for giving me the best birthday ever"

"Granger told you then did she?" he smirked, "should've known. Happy Birthday DI Drake" and with that he lowered his head and kissed her, this was his gift to her and she felt that she couldn't have wished for better even with all the birthday candles in the world.

THE END


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